So when is Salt Lake City going to get an NHL team?

[Nineteen67]

The NHL may want to relocate Seattle to Salt Lake

 

[CraigsList]

I think it only happens if the Arizona Coyotes are to relocate.

Been to Utah many times, they would absolutely love a hockey team like crazy if there was one there.

I would argue that a market in Milwaukee, Wisconsin or Houston, Texas would be my other two choices if there was a team to be made. Central could use another, and I feel like Arizona isn't the best suited team to move division, but they are the odd ones out because of the Canadian teams up north in the Pacific Division.

 

[TheAngryHank]

Move the Yotes there.

 

[93LEAFS]

SLC is one of those cities that can support an NBA or an NHL team, not both. There are a lot of markets like this. For example, a place like Milwaukee would be ideal for the NHL if they didn't have the Bucks given the popularity of the sport in the region.

The smallest metros that support both an NHL and NBA team are cities like Minneapolis/St Paul or Denver, which are both significantly larger than Salt Lake City (especially when you look at them as MSA's).

Next cities on the list are probably Houston (as the largest American metropolitan area that doesn't have an NHL team) or Austin (as the largest American metropolitan area without either an NHL or NBA team, or even an MLB or NFL team).

Edit: Forgot San Diego which is larger than Austin lacks both too

 

[beowulf]

The few responses so far aren't based off of anything other than personal preference for where teams should be. From an objective perspective, out of the cities that lack an NHL team, only Houston deserves a team more than Salt Lake City does at the moment.
And there are several cities that currently have that you could argue deserve a team less than either SLC or Houston. For example, Ft. Lauderdale, Ottawa, Winnipeg, and whatever Long Island suburb the Islanders are squatting in this month.

There are too many teams in Canada as it is.

Ohh please. Salt Lake and Houston don't deserve anything, especially over Ottawa and Winnipeg and the history in Long Island. Too many teams in Canada? ok bub.

 

[amnesiac]

very small market and overlaps basketball.... never going to happen.

 

[93LEAFS]

The few responses so far aren't based off of anything other than personal preference for where teams should be. From an objective perspective, out of the cities that lack an NHL team, only Houston deserves a team more than Salt Lake City does at the moment.
And there are several cities that currently have that you could argue deserve a team less than either SLC or Houston. For example, Ft. Lauderdale, Ottawa, Winnipeg, and whatever Long Island suburb the Islanders are squatting in this month.

There are too many teams in Canada as it is.

Austin deserves a NHL team more than SLC, an argument could also be made for San Diego. Don't know why you'd think its the 2nd most worthy. There are multiple American cities of similar size that lack an NHL team but have an NBA team such as Orlando or Portland.

Don't know why you've pointed to Fort Lauderdale either, considering its part of the Miami metropolitan area, which is one of the larger urban areas in the United States.

 

[HisIceness]

Salt Lake City has a metro population of 1.2 million. That isn't a "deterrent" but lets look at some facts:

-SLC already has an NBA team that has an established fanbase, the people in SLC love the Jazz and have for years. An NHL would have to compete with the Jazz going on at the same time, w/ a combined 82 home games

-SLC also has an MLS franchise. So that's stretching the sports dollar thin even more.

-U of Utah has their Football and Basketball programs taking up Hockey season, so you're talking about even more sports dollar stretching.

-Is there even an NHL-ready arena there? The Delta Center (or whatever it's called now) looks like it only seats 14k for Hockey, and it would also appear that Gail Miller (Jazz owner) owns the building. Is she going to be willing to share w/ a tenant that she has no control over? Seems unlikely.

-And finally, is there even an ownership group that's on board with this idea? I haven't heard of one.

So an NHL franchise in a market of 1.2 million w/ an NBA/MLS/Pac-12 school w/ no suitable building and no ownership group? This is an easy pass.

If the NHL is going to expand/relocate to a "new" US market, it's very likely going to be Houston. You have a much better chance of finding someone from Houston or w/ Houston ties, or just wants to get the ball rolling on a Houston team, than a SLC owner/group. The NHL in all liklihood would rather go to Houston than SLC as well and why wouldn't they? 7 million potential customers and endless corporate support out the ass. The problem would be finding an owner (and possibly a building), but Texas is loaded w/ Billionaires so again, you're more likely to find what the NHL is "looking for" in an owner w/ a Houston team.

 

[LeafsNation75]

Unlike the NHL, the NBA does not tend to change team names when they relocate. Hence, you have the Los Angeles Lakers (originally Minneapolis) and the Utah Jazz (originally New Orleans).

Calgary kept the Flames name when they moved from Atlanta.

 

[rojac]

Calgary kept the Flames name when they moved from Atlanta.

Yes, they did. But that and the slight change from North Stars to Stars in Dallas are about the only examples. On the other hand, the Seals, Scouts, Rockies, Jets, Nordiques, Whalers, and Thrashers all changed their names when they moved.

 

[JianYang]

i'm just passing through SLC right now and I keep thinking to myself, man this would be a very good NHL market. Growing economy, population with a good target populace with good incomes.

I want to toss in a name into the hat:

Salt Lake City Slickers

If I'm the NHL, I'm targeting Houston as the next one. We've been hearing this city in rumors since the 90's. Its easily the largest market without a team, and one of the biggest markets in the US, if I recall correctly. It would be great from a geographical standpoint too, especially for Dallas.

 

[njdevils1982]

ill bet on the same day i sober up

 

[kerrabria]

Ohh please. Salt Lake and Houston don't deserve anything, especially over Ottawa and Winnipeg and the history in Long Island. Too many teams in Canada? ok bub.

>muh heritage franchise

that means literally nothing. I am from Long Island. The fanbase dwindles every year and is completely eclipsed by the Rangers and out of state loyalties (Penguins, Hawks...). I will never understand how anybody deludes themselves into thinking that bc the Islanders have won the second highest number of Cups in a row, they deserve to be permanent vagrants in the eastern NYC metro area.
As for Winnipeg, the team sells out every game, makes the playoffs, and still loses money. It's nothing personal against the city. It is just is too small and too undesirable to be competitive in this league. Factor in that it's not a desirable location to attract talent to and is in Canada where the dollar is weaker, and it's just not a great spot. Similar, but less extreme, story in Ottawa.

Austin deserves a NHL team more than SLC, an argument could also be made for San Diego. Don't know why you'd think its the 2nd most worthy. There are multiple American cities of similar size that lack an NHL team but have an NBA team such as Orlando or Portland.

Don't know why you've pointed to Fort Lauderdale either, considering its part of the Miami metropolitan area, which is one of the larger urban areas in the United States.

I agree that Austin and Portland should be high on the list. Hard disagree on Orlando. It's a basketball city that almost couldn't support an NBA team. Hockey aint gonna fare well there.
I brought up Ft. Lauderdale bc South Florida is a weird dynamic where the metro area is a long, skinny, pretty evenly distributed population along the coast. It's 6m metro population, with the highest concentration being about 500k at the very bottom in Miami, and Ft. Lauderdale at the top (a 1.5 hour drive away in normal traffic) with 120k. Ask the Florida fans on HF. They all agree that it's a Broward County team. Nobody in Miami gives a flying rat's ass about the Panthers or even know they exist.

 

[93LEAFS]

>muh heritage franchise

that means literally nothing. I am from Long Island. The fanbase dwindles every year and is completely eclipsed by the Rangers and out of state loyalties (Penguins, Hawks...). I will never understand how anybody deludes themselves into thinking that bc the Islanders have won the second highest number of Cups in a row, they deserve to be permanent vagrants in the eastern NYC metro area.
As for Winnipeg, the team sells out every game and still loses money. It struggles to attract talented players to sign or stay there, and if it weren't for the team's incredible drafting and development, it'd be a disaster of a franchise. It's nothing personal against the city. It just is too small and too undesirable to be competitive in this league. Similar, but much less extreme, story in Ottawa.



I agree that Austin and Portland should be high on the list. Hard disagree on Orlando. It's a basketball city that almost couldn't support an NBA team. Hockey aint gonna fare well there.
I brought up Ft. Lauderdale bc South Florida is a weird dynamic where the metro area is a long, skinny, pretty evenly distributed population along the coast. It's 6m metro population, with the highest concentration being about 500k at the very bottom in Miami, and Ft. Lauderdale at the top (a 1.5 hour drive away in normal traffic) with 120k. Ask the Florida fans on HF. They all agree that it's a Broward County team. Nobody in Miami gives a flying rat's ass about the Panthers or even know they exist.

My point wasn't Orlando should get a team, but there are better or bigger American markets that currently only have NBA teams and no other. SLC doesn't strike me as a NBA/NHL city, same with Portland. Orlando doesn't really make sense because its two hours from Tampa, so it would likely hurt Tampa TV-wise. I just have a very hard time seeing SLC as next in line after Houston. I would think Austin and San Diego are clearly ahead, before you group SLC in with other NBA cities that don't have NHL teams such as San Antonio or Indianapolis, or cities which aren't in either league like Cincinnati. It doesn't really have anything that dramatically separates it from those cities. I'm not sure SLC's current arena is even viable for an NHL team, considering it only lists being able to hold 14,000 for Ice Hockey.

 

[kerrabria]

very small market and overlaps basketball.... never going to happen.

It has a bigger media market than Vegas. Also, a SLC team wouldn't have to compete with the infinite other entertainment options in Las Vegas that the Knights deal with (including the ever-growing UFC). Furthermore, the NHL knew that Vegas had been on every league's radar since the mid-2000s, and it was very likely that the MLB or NFL would join them at some point in the 2020s (as the Raiders now have).

But lemme guess, you thought it was inevitable that the NHL would give an affirmative-action team to Quebec City back then, too.

 

[Telos]

That'll be the razz name playing off the Slickers team name.

Salt Lake City Slickers could work as a team name. But I just don't see it. To be honest, if the NHL adds one more team after Seattle, they will have the most teams out of any other major sport. They should stick with the 32 they have established/planned for now.

 

[kthx]

Salt Lake City Salmon

 

[mattihp]

Giiiiiiveee it up for yooooooouuuur SAAAAAAALT LAAAAKE GOLDEN TABLETS!

 

[The Great Mighty Poo]

Probably around the time Battle Creek, Michigan is also granted expansion.

 

[RefalancheStillLose]

Probably around the time Battle Creek, Michigan is also granted expansion.

Do you know how tiny battle creek is? Like 50k.
Grand Rapids or Lansing would be the only other cities you could maybe squint your eyes and make a bad case for an nhl team in Michigan.
And that is only of the strength of population in the metro areas not the actual city

 

[HoweHullOrr]

I'd guess Houston. But, I'd also guess it will be a few years before we see any attempts to add beyond 32 teams.

 

[Cotton]

no, only you would imagine that
View attachment 352128

 

[Perfect_Drug]

Gotta imagine after Quebec and a 2nd Toronto team.

Quebec won't get a team again.

The push is largely coming from a PQ sovereigntist (Peledeau) as a political tool.

Players did not want to play in such a hostile francophone environment, and there wouldn't be any market expansion as it's still Habs land. What they realized with Ottawa (and lesser degree Hamilton's bid), was they're not expanding any kind of market share, they're just taking away from the Leafs. Aside from gate revenue, there's absolutely no growth in revenue for the league.

Seattle makes a lot of sense as it's a HUGE hockey market that won't cheer for a regional team in Vancouver. Vegas sort-of made sense for expanding the league but IMHO it could be Arizona v2.0 once the novelty wears off. Lets see how popular they are when they're a bottom feeder for 7 years.

IMHO Florida should move to Houston (or Austin).
Arizona should move to Portland.

 

[Cotton]

>muh heritage franchise

that means literally nothing. I am from Long Island. The fanbase dwindles every year and is completely eclipsed by the Rangers and out of state loyalties (Penguins, Hawks...). I will never understand how anybody deludes themselves into thinking that bc the Islanders have won the second highest number of Cups in a row, they deserve to be permanent vagrants in the eastern NYC metro area.
As for Winnipeg, the team sells out every game, makes the playoffs, and still loses money. It's nothing personal against the city. It is just is too small and too undesirable to be competitive in this league. Factor in that it's not a desirable location to attract talent to and is in Canada where the dollar is weaker, and it's just not a great spot. Similar, but less extreme, story in Ottawa.



I agree that Austin and Portland should be high on the list. Hard disagree on Orlando. It's a basketball city that almost couldn't support an NBA team. Hockey aint gonna fare well there.
I brought up Ft. Lauderdale bc South Florida is a weird dynamic where the metro area is a long, skinny, pretty evenly distributed population along the coast. It's 6m metro population, with the highest concentration being about 500k at the very bottom in Miami, and Ft. Lauderdale at the top (a 1.5 hour drive away in normal traffic) with 120k. Ask the Florida fans on HF. They all agree that it's a Broward County team. Nobody in Miami gives a flying rat's ass about the Panthers or even know they exist.

The fact you say shit like “there are too many Canadian teams as is” ignoring Quebec City and Hamilton, who the NHL admitted would be a top 5 revenue generator, then make an argument for a place like Salt Lake City means you are either having a laugh or are being emotional and don’t understand how the league works. Hell, you list Ottawa, who’s in the green, as undeserving yet make no mention of Arizona, Carolina and Columbus.

Tell the truth, you were hopped up on soda and playing EA NHL before posting.

 

[Cotton]

Quebec won't get a team again.

The push is largely coming from a PQ sovereigntist (Peledeau) as a political tool.

Players did not want to play in such a hostile francophone environment, and there wouldn't be any market expansion as it's still Habs land. What they realized with Ottawa (and lesser degree Hamilton's bid), was they're not expanding any kind of market share, they're just taking away from the Leafs. Aside from gate revenue, there's absolutely no growth in revenue for the league.

Seattle makes a lot of sense as it's a HUGE hockey market that won't cheer for a regional team in Vancouver. Vegas sort-of made sense for expanding the league but IMHO it could be Arizona v2.0 once the novelty wears off. Lets see how popular they are when they're a bottom feeder for 7 years.

IMHO Florida should move to Houston (or Austin).
Arizona should move to Portland.

Bold is completely untrue. Like laughable so.